The Caged Bird
by mikmik121
Summary: The images of Eren's near-death experience with the titan still haunts Armin in his sleep. He questions maybe it'd be better if he give up now and get killed by a titan; they'll never get Wall Maria back. Slight ErenxArmin


'Is this how I'm supposed to die?' _His mind whispered uselessly, lungs desperate for air as his body was being crushed in the titan's grip._ 'Die just like every other soldier before me did. Mikasa can't save me...Eren can't save me...I couldn't even move...'

_ Already he could smell the sickening stench of human blood boiling in its stomach; of the rotting, dead flesh of those its consumed. But he body was frozen, eyes looking around frantically around for any source of help to see nothing but him and the titan standing there with his hand clamped around most of his body._

_ How big was this one? 10-meter? Maybe 15-meters? Either way it didn't matter; it was still large enough to devour him. His mind quickly went back to Eren who quickly went from 'on top of the world' to being eaten, his arm snapped off like a toothpick in the monster's mouth._

'I don't want to die.' _His mind raced with such horrible thoughts as he got lowered into the creature's mouth unable to move his stiffened body_. 'I don't want to die yet...! I don't want to die!'

_He was placed into the creature's mouth, it's wet, slimy tongue and saliva covering his body and tarnishing any attempt to escape._ 'I can't die yet! I haven't gotten out of here yet!' _He was only halfway out of the titan's mouth when it decided to clamp it's mouth shut._

* * *

Armin shot up in his bed, cold sweat covering his body which was now trembling in complete fear. He took a few moments of sitting on his cot in the dark to steady himself while taking deep breaths. Everything was silent and for the moment, safe.

'_Everyone is suffering,_' he noted to himself in his mind to even himself before slowly swinging his legs off the side of his cot. '_Everyone is scared. Everyone wants to go home. No one wants to see more people die._'

The images of what he believed where Eren's last continually flashed in his mind no matter how hard he tried to push the images from his mind. Of being pulled out of that titan's throat and watching uselessly as he held his arm out. The blood splattering and his arm falling down almost 3 stories to the broken cobblestone walkway below. How warm the crimson goo felt when it hit his own paled face.

And all he could do was sit there frozen as death stared him in the face.

Voices haunted him in his sleep, images haunted when he closed his eyes. "You could've done something to save him. Pathetic little _boy_. You don't know what kind of _hell_ you put yourself into. _Freezing_ at the first sign of death. You shouldn't be here. You should've just joined the Military Police."

"Armin?" His thoughts were sharply cut off by Eren's voice behind him. From where he sat he could hear the teen shifting and sitting up to stare at his back through the darkness. "You should be asleep. It's pretty late."

"I need to go out for some air." He mumbled, turning to see Eren's blue eyes cutting through the darkened room. "I'll be back inside in a few minutes-"

"I'll go with you." His voice murmured sharply as he stood up. Feeling as if his response was too strong he added in with,"I can't fall asleep either."

The two walked out in near-silence aside from their feet hitting the ground softly and the light snores and disturbed murmurs of the others still sleeping. A yelp of terror every now and again. Once they were outside, the peace had once again resumed.

They stood outside in silence for a long while, looking up at the moon, half-covered by the wall that led into Trost. A shiver ran through Armin's spine just thinking about that city. Apparently he wasn't the only one thinking about the future fate that awaited the village behind the wall when Eren silently spoke,"they'll be bringing people back into the city any day now."

"How could anyone go back there...?" Armin pondered, leaning against the wall of the building behind him and sliding down to sit. "How can anyone go back thinking about those _monsters_ who came to their homes? Or thinking about the people who _died_ trying to get it back?"

"They _have_ to." The other replied, sitting down beside him with a scowl on his face. "I can't wait for the day that the last one of those _fuckers_ falls dead. Then you and I can go out into the world like your mom and dad did."

"If we can even get Wall Maria back..." He pondered with hopelessness in his voice. "Twenty percent of the population..."

Eren looked over with a softer glance seeing the mixture of pain and anger mixed in Armin's eyes. "We'll get it back. I promise, we'll get back home and beat the titans. Then we'll go see the salty oceans and land of ice...everything that book said."

"Do you think it'd be better," Armin muttered softly, refusing to look up. "Do you think it'd be better if we just _died_ to the titans...? There's no way we'll ever be able to beat them...I'll never see the outside world until I'm dead...maybe not even after that."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Eren growled, grabbing Armin by the shoulders and turning his body towards himself. "What about Trost? Didn't we just beat the titans out of there!? What about that victory-!?"

"Don't you realize how many _people_ we lost!?" Armin snapped back with tears threatening in his eyes. "Over _two hundred_ people died Eren! And four times the amount of people were injured! We can't do this! We'll _never_ be able to beat them...! We'll be stuck in these walls until _every last one of us is dead_!"

"It's not going to come to that!" Eren hissed back, gripping tightly to Armin's shirt and shaking him. "We'll go back to Shiganshina and we'll get Wall Maria back!"

"No we're not!" He yelled, breaking away from Eren then lowering his head to his knees. "We're just going to end up like my grandfather and all those people who died going back! I only freeze up when I see them! I froze up when you got eaten Eren-!"

He was pulled over sharply and felt Eren smack him swiftly across the face as the threatening tears spilled over to the side. His shirt was grabbed and he was pulled closer. "Will you stop _worrying_ about that!? You're smart! You can help us think of ways to end this! I'm alright! See! So stop worrying so much!"

They stayed silent for a few moments, Eren's eyes flaring and Armin's slowly letting down tears. As silence settle over them they calmed down some and Armin was able to slip from Eren's loosening grip. Once more they stared at Wall Rose under the silver moonlight without speaking.

"It's okay to be afraid." Eren sighed after a hesitant moment. "I wouldn't have admitted it but when I jumped into that titan's mouth to get you, I was terrified. Not only because I might've been eaten alive but because I might've lost my best friend too."

Again the silence settled over them as they stared into the sky above which was starting to turn golden as the sun slowly arose. Eren slowly arose, holding his hand to the other. "We should probably go...they'll be waking us up soon and I think we could both use another hour of sleep."

He stared blankly at Eren's hand for a moment before smiling and gripping tightly onto it as his friend hoisted him off the ground. "Yeah..."

* * *

'_I'm dreaming...dreaming that I'm flying above all the titans. Seeing the world stretched out before me._' In his sleep there remained a visible half-smile on his face. '_And maybe one day, I'll be able to see the real world as it was supposed to be seen._'

But for now, he'd have to put his life on the line constantly to be sure he could visit the world outside of these walls. For the caged bird to finally be freed.


End file.
